Barely a week to the December 7, 2016 general elections, issues of bribery allegations against the incumbent National Democratic Congress (NDC) presidential candidate by the opposition New Patriotic Party (NPP) dominated headlines of various news media for today.

The Daily Guide has the caption “NPP accuses Mahama over cash, V8”. The New Patriotic Party (NPP) has accused President John Dramani Mahama  and his brother Ibrahim Mahama of attempting  to influence its Northern Regional chairman, Daniel Bugri Naabu  with cash and vehicle for him to smear the party’s flag bearer, Nana Addo Dankwa  Akufo- Addo. Mr. Bugri Naabu was said to have been offered GH 500,000 and a brand new Mitsubishi Pajero four –wheel drive by the President sometime in October this year. Mustapha Abdul Hamid, spokesman for the NPP presidential candidate, made the disclosures at a press conference at the party’s headquarters in Accra yesterday.

The Ghanaian Times with the headline “NO ‘all-die-be-die’… elections will be peaceful – President Mahama” says President  John Dramani  Mahama has expressed optimism that next week’s general  elections will be peaceful, saying God will prevent ‘all-be-die’’ or any  form  of violence to befall the country. Addressing a durbar of chiefs and people of Assin Bereku in the Central Region, as part of his campaign tour. He said in Akan: ‘God‘s hands are upon Ghana and will not allow any chaos or all-die-be-die to occur in Ghana. He said  most  often  during  elections  some people  created fear among  the  electorate that there  would  be chaos  in the country, but  each time , the electoral process was  successful and so would it  be this year.

Today also carries the headline “Mahama desperate for power as he commissions uncompleted Assembly building”. The paper states that  with  few days  to the December 7 polls, it is becoming  increasingly clear that  President  John  Dramani  Mahama, who  is also  the presidential candidate of the  governing  National Democratic  Congress (NDC) is overly  desperate to   retain power. The desperation by the President  has manifested itself  glaringly  in his  continuous haste to commission uncompleted state projects  while  on his  campaign  trail all in the name  to  get votes and win  the presidential election. The latest yet-to-be completed state project which was expected to be commissioned by the President yesterday was the Effutu Municipal Assembly in the Effutu constituency in the Central Region.

“Vote for Ghana to preserve peace …. 3 leaders urge voters” is a headline in the Daily Graphic. The paper reports that against  the  background  of rising  tension in the  run-up to the  December  7 general  election, two  religious  leaders and a traditional   ruler  have made  separate  appeals to Ghanaians to uphold  the peace and  maintain  the sanctity  of the  elections, irrespective  of their  political affiliations . The leaders are President  of the Ghana Catholic  Bishops  Conference, the Most Rev. Philip  Naameh; the National Chief Imam, Sheikh  Osman  Sharubutu, and the  President  of the National  House of Chiefs  (NHC), Togbe Afede XIV

We conclude today’s newspaper review with a story in the Ghanaian Observer “EC to kick start rigging plot with special voting”. According to story the opposition New Patriotic Party’s National Youth Organizer, Sammy Awuku, has alleged that the upcoming special voting on December 1, marks the beginning of the Electoral Commission’s grand ploy to rig elections, in favor of the governing National Democratic Congress (NDC). According to him, some eligible voter names have been deleted on the special voting list. “The special voter’s list is a source of worry to us as a political party because several voting names have been deleted.” Sammy Awuku was addressing the NPP Northern Regional Youth League in Tamale, as part of his nationwide campaign tour.

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